November Update

Oh, My Sweet Nora Lee!

There have been lots of changes since my last update. Where to begin…?

Nora will be 11 months old Nov 29th. She stands very easily with the support of furniture or a spare adult leg. She has recently begun letting go of the support and free-standing for 4-5 seconds at a time. She has been stable on her feet for a month or so now and has started dancing. She loves music – surprise, surprise - and loves to dance. She stands up against the couch and will shake her little booty like nobody's business. It is definitely the cutest thing I have EVER seen. We captured some on video and hope to post it soon (I need Matt’s technical expertise on that one).

She also loves to make noise – of every kind. She has a little tambourine and a set of 12 wooden shakers that all make different sounds. When the music comes on she stops whatever she is doing and bobs her head and shakes the tambourine or shakers. Holy God its fun! We dance with her and she goes wild.

I recently purchased some really great wooden toys from an online distributor. Since she still puts everything in her mouth I realized that she was sucking on plastic all day long and I just didn’t feel okay about it anymore. So we replaced the plastic toys with wooden ones that are dyed with paint that won’t hurt her. It feels good.

Nora’s grandparents got her this little truck that she can push or ride. It makes music, two different siren sounds, two honking noises and you can put things in the seat. The whole thing is VERY exciting to Nora Lee. She can now even ride it herself. She gets on (with our help) and pushes along the wood floor honking the horn and laughing. Then she gets off and pushes the siren button and shakes her butt. I love that it’s the siren she dances to – not the toy's music. I guess I should be nervous that she hears sirens and thinks “party!”.

Although many people think she is a little Matt clone I know she is my daughter because of how she feels about mealtime. When Nora is hungry she does this little sucking thing with her lips (to communicate about nursing as well). When I put her in her high chair she is thrilled and pounds her hands on the tray. Food mom, Food!! She likes just about everything but is not excited about bananas or broccoli. I take her to restaurants now and she happily sits in the highchair at the table. She plays with straws and spoons and is most delighted when the food arrives. There are still a few foods she can’t have until she is one year old – tomatoes, strawberries, and citrus.

She has been having a heck of a time with teething. She has eight teeth and the bottom canine's are on there way in. It’s been really hard. She wakes up screaming and has just felt badly on and off for a few weeks now. We look forward to her being pain free again.

Nora Lee has interacted with a handful of animals since she was born. A few cats and dogs of several sizes. About two months ago we were at my stepsister, Rozy’s, house and there was a faux fur pillow on the ground next to Nora Lee. She crawled over and touched it and quickly drew her hand back and began screaming in a way I had never heard from her before. It was as if she was psychically tuning in to the pain the animal experienced during death – only it wasn’t real fur. We took the pillow away and she was fine.

About a month later I brought out a stuffed animal that had a similar feel to it, not even thinking about the pillow incident. She felt the animal and started screaming in horror. Matt and I worked a little with her to show her it was okay. She was willing to brave a few more touches but would draw her hand back quickly in disgust.

Her experience with animals was positive until we went to visit some friends who have two little dogs. When they came up to her she freaked out again – just like with the stuffed animal and pillow. I wondered if she was just going through a phase where animals were scary but the following Sunday we went to another friends house with a huge fluffy dog. Nora Lee wanted to follow that dog all day. Compared to Nora (compared to me for that matter) this dog was huge. She wasn’t the least bit afraid and just loved petting her. She would sit and pet her and giggle away. I can’t figure it out. Especially because this dog's fur was really furry just like the pillow and stuffed animal. Maybe because it was real fur she liked it? Maybe little dogs are creepy and big dogs are fun? I don’t know, but perhaps a big dog is in our future.

Nora puts everything in her mouth. Often you can hear one of us saying, “What’s in your mouth?” Then digging our finger in – getting chomped in the process (those things are sharp!) – to drag out some piece of dirt or scrap of something or other. I expect that, but we have been surprised twice after finding garlic skins in her mouth. How does garlic get in the living room you ask? I have no idea. But on two occasions we have gotten close to her only to smell this powerful garlic smell, to look closer and realize something is in her mouth and then pull out a chomped piece of garlic clove.

It’s getting colder here and I like to keep her as warm as possible. This includes wearing socks to keep her feet cozy. She has become quite anti-sock. She pulls them off immediately no matter how cold it is. If she can’t get them off she cries and pulls and squeals in frustration. I put her shoes on to see if she would feel differently and she pulled at them and indicated she wanted them off! When I removed one, she pointed to the other one. If we carry her or she is in the backpack on my back she doesn’t seem to mind, but in her car seat or when she crawls around they are off immediately. It may be that it’s easier to walk without them but why the car seat too? She is a mystery.

Lately she has been exploring her voice and in times of frustration has let out a huge roar. I roar back with a big smile on my face. It immediately diffuses the situation and she goes from grumpy to giggly.

I have been experiencing some pretty bad mama abuse these last few months. She doesn’t mean to hurt me and when she does she begins to cry and pat me. With the teething she bites everything including my clothes. She doesn’t realize I'm underneath. Every time she nurses she pinches my skin and then twists it around. I am constantly tapping her hands to remind her to stop it! I have all these red marks on my abdomen from these wounds. The other day she threw a block down. I was lying on the ground with her and it hit me right by my eye and left a bruised knot. It reeeaaallly hurt and I held my face. She started crying and crawled over to pat me.

When she wants something she's not shy about asking. When she wants to nurse she crawls over to me, grabs my shirt and tugs. I’ve only flashed guests once thankfully.

Love you all.

Sara